The Magic Goes Away

Blurb

The Magic Goes Away is a fantasy short story written by Larry Niven in 1976, and later expanded to a novella of the same name which was published in 1978. While these works were not the first in the "Magic Universe" or "Warlock" series, they marked a turning point after the 1973 oil crisis and Niven's subsequent transformation of the series into an allegory for a modern-day energy crisis; the novella was also his first work longer than a short story. Niven's approach to fantasy is relatively logical and somewhat distinct from the high fantasy normally associated with the genre. The setting was later used as a backdrop for a series of full-length novels, The Burning City and its sequel, Burning Tower, which were co-written with Jerry Pournelle.